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Clergymen in Cuffs as Protesters Are Arrested

By Andy Newman January 5, 2012 4:04 pmJanuary 5, 2012 4:04 pm

Updated, 6:26 p.m. | Four pastors, including a member of City Council, were among seven men arrested Thursday morning in front of the city Law Department during a protest of the city’s ban on allowing churches to hold worship services in public school buildings, the police and organizers said.

The protests also targeted the city housing authority, which is reviewing the terms of its arrangements with churches that hold worship services in public-housing buildings.

All those arrested were charged with trespassing, including Councilman Fernando Cabrera, a Democrat who leads a church in the Bronx. About 20 demonstrators gathered in front of the Law Department’s headquarters at 100 Church Street to protest the policy, and after about an hour, seven of them sat down in front of the building and refused to leave until they were arrested, the police said.

The city’s policy on worship services in school buildings emerged intact last month when the United States Supreme Court declined to review a lower court’s decision in a suit brought by a small Bronx evangelical church that has been holding its Sunday services at Public School 15 since 2002.

As the case made its way through the system, the city’s ban was put on hold, and some 160 congregations used school buildings for worship services last school year. They have been given a Feb. 12 deadline to leave the schools.

On a separate track, the city housing authority has told the five churches that meet on the grounds of public housing that it is reviewing its permitting process. A spokeswoman, Sheila Stainback, said that many groups — not just churches — had entered into agreements to use buildings on a short-term basis but kept renewing them.

Ms. Stainback said that by doing so, the groups had avoided having to obtain liability insurance, among other things.

The groups with “temporary use” permits have had their permits extended until the end of February, at which point the authority hopes to have a new process in place, Ms. Stainback said.

“The process may not end,” she said, “but it will change.”

She emphasized, however, that the authority has no policy against religious services being held on its property.

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